


The fluffy painkiller

by thesweetpianowritingdownmylife



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Asexual Character, Caleb Widogast is a Mess, Cats, Chronic Pain, Don't read if you are part of the CR cast or crew, Familiars, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Trans Character, a bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-07 05:55:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21453103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesweetpianowritingdownmylife/pseuds/thesweetpianowritingdownmylife
Summary: Frumpkin likes this new friend of Caleb's, so he goes to his house to ask for cuddles.(Or: Essek has chronic pain that lessens with Frumpkin's purrs. Cue attempts to get closer to the cat, and accidentally to his wizard)
Relationships: Essek Thelyss & Caleb Widogast, Essek Thelyss & Frumpkin, Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 49
Kudos: 718





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I do not have chronic pain, and I didn't base this in any real world illness, it has a magic origin.  
I've tried to be as respectful as possible, but if there is something that you think is offensive, please let me know.

There was a loud wailing at his door; it sounded like either a bereft baby or a wounded animal. Since it was one a.m., Essek tried to ignore it. However, it was getting on his nerves, so after ten minutes he went to check it out. He couldn’t see anything through the peephole, although now he could also hear something scratching at the door. He decided to prepare an offensive spell, in case he had to deal with an angry wild animal, and he opened the door an inch. On the other side he found a familiar orange cat.

He let the spell fizzle out, and sighed. He had tried to meet the Nein always at their house to keep his own place of residence a secret from them, so that they wouldn’t come over and bother him. Even if he was never truly safe from Jester, who could contact him whenever she wanted, those interruptions were luckily limited to the number of spell slots she had for the day, and thus, were not unending. Now there was nothing to stop the whole group from showing up at his doorstep and bang pots and pans together until he agreed to teleport them somewhere. This was a nightmare come true.

He was not overly familiar with cats, since there weren’t any in Rosohna –nor in most of Xhorhas–, but he guessed that their sense of smell might be as keen as that of a moorbounder. That was probably how Frumpkin had found him.

The cat meowed loudly at him, although less despairingly now that he had been noticed. He pressed his head against the open slit, fighting to get in.

“You’re not coming in, Caleb.” He was too tired to deal with this. “What, did you think I would let you inside to peruse all of my secrets, just because you come in furry form? Go home.”

Frumpkin stopped trying to break in and looked at him directly. His eyes were a soft amber color, not the tell-tale blue that indicated that Caleb was watching. Still, only one person could have sent him.

“Frumpkin, then.” He amended. “Go back to your master, there’s nothing here for you.”

A loud meow answered him.

“It’s late, I want to go to bed,” he lied. He still had many pressing chores to tend to today.

A louder meow.

Essek sighed. If the cat had been ordered to get into Essek’s house, there would be no dissuading it.

“Wait for a moment.” Surprisingly, the cat sat down, and didn’t meow again.

He closed the front door and then shut the three doors that led to other rooms in his house. Hopefully, Frumpkin’s orders were to merely “go inside”, and not “investigate the entire house”, so he might be placated if he could hang around the foyer for a while. Once he was sure that there were no openings for the cat to go anywhere else, he let him in.

Frumpkin made an “mrrp” sound and ran inside. He circled the room, sniffing all doors, but did not try to scratch them nor demand Essek to open them, which relieved him immensely. Once he was satisfied with his investigations, he went towards Essek and started weaving around his legs, rubbing against them and purring.

“Are you happy now? Then you can go home.”

The cat took no notice of him, except to purr louder. Essek tried to crouch to catch him in his arms and take him outside himself, but the movement caused pain to shoot up from his hip and stopped him dead. He stumbled to the bench near the door and sat down, trying to take deep breaths. Frumpkin took the opportunity to jump onto his lap and start making biscuits on his leg. Essek was too distracted to do anything about it. He gritted his teeth and gripped the corner of the bench; he could not do anything other than wait until the excruciating pain subsided. Thankfully he had closed the door, so the cold was not getting in. The cold always made the pain worse. On the other hand, he was now locked in with the cat, but that wasn’t so bad. It had curled up on his lap and was purring at full volume.

To his surprise, the pain started to subside after five minutes. Usually when he had one of his flares it took him half an hour before he could move again, but now it had gone from “hellish” to “manageable” incredibly fast. He could have stood up by then, but he stayed put and tentatively started scratching Frumpkin’s head. The cat flopped and showed him his belly, so Essek started to pet him there, but four sets of sharp claws attacked his hand. Feeling slightly betrayed, he went back to petting his head.

He felt the vibration of the purrs reach deep down into his bones. Was that it? After ten minutes, the pain was back to his normal baseline of “there, but can be ignored” that he dealt with in good days, absolutely nothing compared to the flare that had happened as he crouched.

Essek tried to think back on his teaching lessons with Caleb. He had noticed a lack of pain during them, but he had attributed it to being distracted; after all, if he was sufficiently engaged with something, he often stopped noticing it. But maybe it had been Frumpkin all along. The cat seemed to like him, and often took naps on his lap during the lessons. The first time Caleb had apologized on behalf of his familiar, but it hadn’t bothered Essek; Frumpkin was soft and warm, and a bit of a novelty around these parts.

But this, this was wonderful. He did have spells that helped manage the pain, and he was forced to use them on most days, but they were limited by his spell slots, and he had often run out by the time night came around. A traitorous part of his brain said that it would be so convenient if Caleb lived closer –perhaps in Essek’s house itself– and could lend Frumpkin to him when the pain got bad. He clamped down on that thought; his interest in Caleb was bad enough, and this only complicated things.

After a while, he sighed and let Frumpkin gently to the floor.

“Thank you, that was very helpful. You can come again any time.”

The cat bumped his leg with his head once in acknowledgement, went to the front door and meowed to be let out. Essek stood up, his hip protesting again, although not as intensely as before, and opened the door for him.

He looked as the cat disappeared into the night, and wondered about how much about his weakness he would tell Caleb.


	2. Chapter 2

Frumpkin took his invitation to heart; every night that the Nein were in Rosohna, he came to visit. At first Essek met him in the foyer, but he let him into other rooms soon enough, after making sure that all valuables and relevant documents were under lock and key (in case Caleb got any ideas about spying him through his furry friend). Often he would lie on the couch and the cat would jump on top of him. Even on the days when the pain was not that bad, it helped him relax. Once he even fell asleep, only awaking when Frumpkin started to meow at him to be left out. After that Essek enchanted one of his bedroom windows so that it would open only for the cat and he could come in and out as he pleased.

Two weeks later, a mission took the Nein away from Rosohna, and Essek suffered from the lack of Frumpkin. He was sure that the pain was not worse than before, but it sure felt that way; by then he was completely addicted to the healing purrs. He considered sending them a message to ask them to catch a cat for him, as part of the multiple favors that they owed him. However Caleb had told him before that not all cats were as cuddly as Frumpkin, so there was no guarantee that the one they caught would be helpful. Besides, Essek suspected that it was Frumpkin’s fey nature what made him so effective, so a regular cat might not do. Sadly, drow mages had lost the ability to summon familiars after abandoning their worship of Lolth, one of the few downsides of being a follower of the Luxon.

After a few days Jester’s perky voice, loud and jarring in his head, told him that the group was back.

“Heeeey Essek, we’re here! We have not found the beacon BUT, we have a pretty big lead! If you come to the house, we could–”

He answered before she could send another message. “I’ll be right there.”

Essek glided through Rosohna, not too fast to avoid showing his impatience. The Light knows what the people of Xhorhas would think, if their Shadowhand appeared too excited to meet the Empire allies. It was worrisome enough that he actually was. He could tell himself all he wanted that it was only because he had missed the cat’s pain-relieving abilities, but it wasn’t true. He liked them. They were annoying and infuriating (and there was a possibility that they were enemies in disguise), but they were also fun to be around, at least when they were not begging him to spend his spells dragging them across two countries. He quietly wished for the opportunity to get to know them better.

The door opened with the sound of chimes, and the human woman was waiting for him on the other side.

“Shadowhand, come inside.” She stepped aside. “Welcome again. Could I interest you in some tea? Or something to eat?” Her voice was flat and expressionless, and so was her face. “Caddy is making dinner, but it’s going to take him a while.”

“No, thank you,” Essek answered a bit stiffly. “Jester said that you had news?”

Beau turned to look at Fjord, and raised her arms part-way questioningly. Fjord mouthed to her _You forgot to smile_, and then turned towards Essek. “That we do. We found out that the beacon is being moved often, as we already suspected, with the help of a certain group of smugglers. This group has their centre of operations in Shadycreek Run, and we happen to have an ally who lives nearby. We have messaged her and asked her to keep an eye on their dealings, and to investigate a little, to see if she can find out about their movements. Jester is going to message her every day to check for news. We’ll be ready to go when there are any.”

“Well, it’s certainly a step in the right direction,” Essek replied, letting the tiniest of satisfied smiles show on his face.

Fjord cleared his throat. “If we happen to need to go to the Run to investigate, um, well, there aren’t any teleportation circles around there, that we know of…” He trailed off.

His smile fell.

“Sorry,” Beau said. His apologetic smile looked more like a grimace.

Essek sighed. “Is Caleb home?”

“He’s in his room.”

On his way up he came across Jester, who hugged him briefly and said she was happy to see him, but luckily continued downstairs without waiting for an answer. Essek rearranged his mantle, creased by the surprise hug, and knocked on Caleb’s door.

Caleb brightened up when he saw him. “Oh! You came so quickly. I would have waited downstairs if I had known.” Essek smiled back against his better judgment. “Have you heard the news?”

“Yes, Fjord informed me,” he raised an eyebrow, “that apparently you’ll be needing my help again.”

“_Ja_…” Caleb rubbed the back of his head, bashful, “Sorry. At this rate we will be in your debt forever.”

“Well, I’m sure I can come up with a way for you to pay me back.” Essek’s smile turned slightly predatory.

Caleb didn’t seem to notice, and nodded vigorously. “Whatever we can do for you, you just have to say the word.”

_Oh, if only_. “For now concentrate on finding the beacon, that’s what’s most important. In the meantime, I have a spell for you, unless you are too tired?”

His eyes lit up. “I am perfectly fine. Please, come in.”

He fetched paper and ink from his bag and sat at the desk. Essek sat next to him and took out his spell book from its pocket dimension. He started browsing it to find the spell and asked nonchalantly, “Isn’t Frumpkin going to accompany us today?”

Caleb snapped his fingers, and the cat appeared on his shoulders. To his surprise, Frumpkin jumped from them and directly to Essek’s lap. He pressed insistently against Essek’s hands until he put the book down on the desk and started petting him from head to tail. The cat began purring right away at the treatment.

“_Was_?” Caleb asked, confused. “Frumpkin, do not…”

“I don’t care,” Essek reminded him. The cat had put his front paws on his chest and was rubbing his head against the drow’s chin. “Yes, I have missed you as well.” He admitted in a solemn voice.

“Missed him? What?”

“I guessed that you were too far away to send him to me these days. If you did, I didn’t see him, I hadn’t seen him since the last night before you left for the Empire.”

“You saw him on that night?” Caleb looked nonplussed.

Essek bristled. “You had sent him to my house for two weeks straight, don’t play dumb with me.”

But the way that Caleb was looking at how his cat was cuddling Essek would be difficult to fake. “I truly have no idea what you are talking about.” It wasn’t a lie, that was plain to see. He looked at the cat. “Have you been going to Essek’s house after I fall asleep?”

Frumpkin did a “blep” at him, and proceeded to make biscuits on Essek’s lap.

“I am sorry that he intruded.” The human seemed pensive. “I can order him to stop going.”

“Don’t you dare,” Essek blurted out a bit too quickly. “I like his visits a lot. I find him… interesting.”

Frumpkin curled up in his lap and purred happily. The pain started to ebb away.

“It is okay, if he is not bothering you.”

“Not in the slightest.” He turned to the books. “Now, this spell…”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: sex-repelled person putting themselves in a bad situation, but no actual sex happening.

The first teleportation spell failed, sending them to a dense forest with strange vegetation that none of them had ever seen, so Essek had to cast it again. This time, they appeared in the right spot. As usual the spell shook his bones and worsened Essek’s pain considerably. Any time he had had to perform it twice in a short span of time, it had incapacitated him for the rest of the day, and this time it would not be any different. He stumbled a bit (he was walking, there was no maintaining his concentration to levitate after all that), and had to grab onto Caleb’s arm to stabilize himself. Caleb looked at him worriedly.

“_Now_ we’re in the right spot!” Nott cried out. “And if we don’t find it here, later we…”

“Later you can walk there on your own two feet,” Essek interrupted her. “This is the fourth time this week that you’ve abused of my good graces.” The pain was overwhelming. “I’m not your personal chauffeur.” He walked away and started drawing a teleportation circle on the floor, gritting his teeth through the pain that bending to the ground caused him. He was on autopilot, going through the motions and hoping he would be able to finish it before passing out.

Caleb had followed him. “I am sorry, I know that…”

“Unless you start paying back some of that debt, I’m not taking you all anywhere else.” Essek snapped at him, too pained to be polite.

Caleb nodded, his face turning from worried to grim and determined.

Essek finished the circle and went back to Rosohna.

Travelling via circle was not nearly as painful, but his present condition was so bad that he almost collapsed upon arriving to the Lucid Bastion. He took a few deep breaths and reactivated his levitation spell, which was the only thing that allowed him to reach his home. He had many responsibilities scheduled for that day, meetings, paperwork, research, but a dense fog had started invading his mind, and he knew from experience that he would be able to do nothing but rest. He sent a couple of messages to ensure that no one would be offended by his absence and, more importantly, no one would come bother him, and he went to sleep.

Jester’s voice woke him up that evening, many hours later. She sounded a bit more subdued than usual.

“Hello. We’re home. We didn’t find it. We are leaving tomorrow again. Our friend Allura can teleport us. We love you and are very thankful.”

He considered not responding, but eventually said, “Fine.” He waited, but Jester did not send any further messages.

Thankfully the pain had subsided a little by then. He managed to get out of bed and go to his study, where he got started on some of the paperwork that he should have been doing during the day. He left the door that led to his bedroom open, in case Frumpkin came in via the window. But at one a.m., the time that the cat usually showed up, there was a knock on the door instead.

Essek went to the entrance and looked through the peephole. It was Caleb. Essek was not in the mood to speak with anyone, least of all someone from the Mighty Nein, but he guessed that if he was there, he must have a good reason for it. He opened the door.

“What do you–”

He was interrupted. Caleb had surged forward and was kissing him.

It took him a few seconds to wrap his head around what was happening, and then he couldn’t help but kiss back. The wizard had somehow closed the door behind him and was pushing him towards the bedroom door. Caleb’s hands seemed to be everywhere, and they were pulling at his clothes to disrobe him. The kiss was making Essek dizzy with want, but he managed to rearrange his thoughts and catch Caleb’s hands to stop him. He pulled back and looked the human in the eye.

Caleb was breathless and flushed. He squirmed and tried to kiss the drow again, but Essek kept him in place to observe him. Although he expected to find desire in his expression, he only saw desperation and fear in it; his eyes were unfocused, his mind seemed elsewhere. Essek suspected he was dissociating a bit.

“Caleb,” he said as gently as he could, “what are you doing?”

The wizard stopped struggling in his grip, and his gaze fell to the ground. “Paying our debt.”

Essek felt his stomach drop. He let go of the hands as if they were on fire, and took a step back. “But is this something you want?”

“Yes.”

_Lie_.

“Let’s try that again.” He cast _Zone of Truth_. “Is this something you want?”

Caleb also stepped back, but felt compelled to answer anyway. “No.” He hugged himself.

Disappointment hit Essek in the chest like a rock. “Why have you come here?”

“To have sex with you.” It looked like every word out of his mouth hurt him. “So that you would not be angry with us anymore, and so that I could start paying you back.”

“But why in this way?” Essek’s voice wobbled a little.

“I thought this was what you wanted.” His tone wasn’t accusatory, just dead.

Essek barked a dry laugh. “You thought I wanted to have non-consensual sex with you?”

“I was consenting to it.”

“Consenting but unwilling?”

Caleb bent over from the effort of keeping the words in. They tumbled out anyway. “I do not like sex. I hate it.” He whispered.

Essek rubbed his face with his hands and tried to contain a wave of nausea. If he hadn’t noticed that something was amiss, he would have… he didn’t want to even think about it.

Caleb straightened up, expression suddenly fierce. “But I did want to kiss you.”

“Stop.” Essek’s tone had turned to steel.

“I like you, Essek.” Caleb took a step towards him.

“Stop.”

“Please, Essek, I really…”

“Go away.” He let the spell fizzle out and went to open the door. “Go home.”

“I am so sorry.” Caleb’s eyes were bright with tears.

Essek was having trouble breathing. “Don’t try this ever again.”

Caleb nodded and went outside. Essek slammed the door after him.

He tried to get back to his work, but there was no way. He could not keep his thoughts away from what had just happened. He had known that nothing good could come from his infatuation, but he had never anticipated this type of consequences. He was not that surprised that Caleb had caught on to his little crush, but he was offended that he thought that Essek would want to have him regardless of Caleb’s feelings on the matter. And he was worried that Caleb would even offer it in the first place, that he thought this was expected of him even though he abhorred it.

If he continued to think about it, he would actually hurl. He went to bed and charmed himself with a spell that would allow him to sleep without dreams.


	4. Chapter 4

It had been five days since the disastrous visit. Frumpkin hadn’t come back.

Caleb had in all probability ordered him to stop going to Essek’s house, thinking the cat would only remind him of Caleb. Undoubtedly it was not meant to be a punishment, but Essek felt punished. The pain had not gone back to manageable levels yet; it was turning out to be one of his longer flares. He burned through spell after spell to be able to work, but things got dire by the end of the day. He was forced to take sleeping draughts to be able to close his eyes for a few hours and regain his spell slots. His work was suffering from it; he needed to resolve the situation.

He would do anything to get that cat back.

He knew that the Nein were in Rosohna, because Jester sent him near-daily messages. To her credit, she was not overly annoying; she merely updated him on the state of their investigations, and used any spare words to tell Essek that he was so impressive and cool, and that they were so thankful for everything he had done for them. Eventually he had used one of the responses to apologize for his curtness the other day. It was difficult to stay mad at her.

So he swallowed his pride and dragged himself to the house with the tree on the roof. He was ready to beg if necessary for five minutes with Frumpkin, even though he was not looking forward to facing the wizard. If his pain had not been as pressing, he would have wanted to give Caleb some space, wait for a few more days, maybe see how he would react to Essek’s presence when he met with the whole group. He did not want to put undue pressure on what was a very fragile friendship. But he could not wait.

He knocked on the door and the tall firbolg opened it. Essek put on a fake smile; Caduceus disturbed him a little. They had not interacted that much, but he found him odd, with his piercing gaze and calm eyes and lichen growing right on his skin. Caduceus looked at him for a moment before speaking.

He skipped any greeting. “Caleb has been out of sorts lately.” The voice was calm, but had an undercurrent of danger that made Essek’s hair stand on end. “Do you know anything about that?”

If Essek hadn’t been levitating, he would have tripped on his own feet. He blinked twice. “Maybe.”

Caduceus titled his head. “Have you come to fix it?”

“Yes.”

“Then, welcome.” He smiled and let him in. “He’s in his room.”

Essek went up the stairs, thanking his lucky stars when he did not to come across any of the other members of their merry band. He knocked on the door and Caleb answered after a moment.

This time, he did not smile when he saw Essek. There was a crease between his eyes, and his mouth was pressed in a thin line.

“Mister Shadowhand,” he greeted him, “how can I help you?”

Essek wanted to say many things. That he was sorry for kicking him out of his house like that when Caleb was obviously feeling vulnerable. That he could not stop thinking about how Caleb said that he liked Essek while under a truth spell. That he missed him and wanted to fix things. That the reason he helped the Nein so often is because he liked them, not because of any future favors they may do for him. But the only thing that came out of his mouth was, “I need Frumpkin.”

“Uh, _was_? What for?” Whatever he had been expecting, it wasn’t that.

“I just need to cuddle him for a while. Preferably while sitting or laying down.” _Please, please, please, please_…

The wizard was too surprised to answer, but he snapped his fingers and Frumpkin appeared on the floor. Essek walked to the bed and lay down; the cat followed him and jumped on top of him, lying across his hips, as if he knew exactly what he was needed for. His purrs were deafening, and soon Essek started to feel better. The pain did not fully disappear, but after a few minutes it was under control. Caleb hovered near the bed, confused and curious.

Essek was not keen on sharing his troubles. His condition was not a political secret, something to be hidden at all costs from a possible Empire spy, but he considered it a personal matter. However, sharing it might give him more access to the cat, and that was the main priority.

“I suffer from chronic pain. The purring helps.”

Caleb nodded understandingly. “I find it lessens my anxiety, and I have heard that a cat’s purrs can help expedite the recovery of broken bones, too.”

“It cannot fix my bones, unfortunately. The damage had a magical source.”

Caleb sat at the border of the bed and looked at him expectantly. He wanted to know more, but Essek suspected he would not press him, if that was all he decided to share.

_In for a copper, in for a gold_. “I was young and an idiot.” He smiled a little sadly. “The body I was born in disgusted me, and when I started to learn magic, I couldn’t wait to change it. I managed to reshape my nether regions to my liking and adjust most of what puberty had mutated, but when it came to narrowing my hips, I worded something wrong.” He grimaced at the memory. “The pain was…indescribable. I was brought to a number of clerics for healing, and it lessened considerably, but it never went away. And it flares up quite often.”

“Is that…” he hesitated, and Essek bowed his head to indicate he had permission to ask questions. “Is that why you levitate most of the time?”

“Yes, it helps relieve some of the pressure, but it’s not enough.” He brought up a hand to scratch the cat’s head. “This young fellow has been making it much more bearable.”

“I am sorry that I ordered Frumpkin not to visit you,” he told him earnestly, “if I had known…”

“Don’t worry, I figured.”

Frumpkin purred away. After a moment of silence, Caleb placed his hand on Essek’s. “I am sorry that I came at you like I did.”

Essek turned his palm up and squeezed Caleb’s hand. “I forgive you.” The human relaxed visibly. “I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want for my sake.”

“I understand.” He squeezed Essek’s hand back.

“I am serious.” Essek’s expression softened. “Your friendship and your well-being are important to me.”

“And my cat?” Caleb smiled.

Essek laughed. “And your cat.”

There was another beat of silence, but the atmosphere was less tense.

“You can take him with you,” Caleb offered. “I do need him when we go on our adventures, but in the meantime he can be with you. He seems to like you well enough.”

It was too tempting, Essek couldn’t say no. “Thank you.”

Caleb started tracing patterns on Essek’s wrist with his fingers. “Maybe then you will believe me when I say that I like you.”

“Not just for my lessons and my ability to take you across the map?” Essek scoffed.

“Not just for that.”

Essek sighed. “It’s a little difficult for me to believe that right now.” _Because you were just lying to me about wanting to have sex with me_, he didn’t add.

However, Caleb heard it anyway.

“I want to earn back your trust, if you give me the opportunity.”

Essek smiled softly. “Well, lending me your cat is definitely earning you points.”

Frumpkin meowed. He seemed okay with the arrangement.


	5. Chapter 5

The Nein had been better about finding alternative methods of travelling as of late. Essek suspected that Caleb had had something to do with it, after learning how the spell taxed Essek’s body. Nevertheless Jester messaged him almost every evening with news or gossip. It was unexpected when she messaged him one morning instead.

“Hi Essek! Caleb is asking if he can go visit you at your house today.” Essek could not see her, but he swore he could _hear_ her eyebrows wiggling. “You can set the time, or say… another… day… poop.”

He laughed despite himself. “Today works. I should already be home at ten this evening.”

There was no response. Perhaps Jester was being mindful of her spell slots; after all, it was morning still. Or maybe Caleb was next to her, watching her deliver his message like a hawk, and stopping her from bothering him further after getting his answer.

The day crawled by at a snail’s pace. Essek was a bit nervous about their meeting; they hadn’t talked or seen each other since the day he had gone to beg for Frumpkin’s cuddles, almost a week ago. He missed his wizard a bit, but he had wanted to give him the space that he so obviously needed. The cat had been coming to visit him during the night, the only hours when the drow was at home, but spending most of the day with his master.

At exactly ten o’clock there was a knock on his door. Essek opened it to find Caleb on the other side, all smiling and handsome.

He smiled back. “Welcome.”

Something rubbed against his legs and chirped up at him. Apparently Frumpkin was also happy to see him.

“I am not going to kiss you this time,” Caleb promised earnestly.

Essek’s eyes widened for a moment, until he realized that the human was joking. “Well, that’s a relief.” He hoped that Caleb could see he was joking too. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” He let him in and closed the door behind him.

“Today,” Caleb grinned, “we are going to get you your own Frumpkin.”

“How?” Essek frowned. “For us, familiars were…”

“…a gift from the Lolth, I am aware. I have done my research.” He winked.

A part of Essek’s brain was alarmed at this statement._ When? Where? Has he gotten access to our archives? _He dismissed the thought. Caleb was his ally, and Essek trusted him.

“Apparently,” Caleb continued, “we do things differently in the Empire. I am 97% sure that I can teach you our way, and it will work for you.”

Essek was speechless. If it worked, he would be able to take the familiar with him everywhere, have him as support in public without the accusations of treason that would come if he was seen with Frumpkin. Not only that, but it would prove to everyone that the Nein still had things to offer to the Dynasty, despite their recent failures. Many mages like Essek had missed being able to summon a familiar since they had left the Underdark. Everyone at Den Thelyss would be impressed with the discovery.

“But I think, um, that you should promise to still give pets to Frumpkin every now and then, even if you have your own familiar.” He looked at the cat still winding around Essek’s legs. “He loves you a lot.”

“Of course.” Essek crouched a bit, ignoring the pain, and invited the cat to jump into his arms. “He is always welcome. And so are you, although I appreciated the heads up.”

They went to his study and sat at the desk. Caleb dropped a heavy bag next to his chair, and Frumpkin jumped to his usual position in Essek’s lap. He curled up and went to sleep while they prepared the necessary materials. Caleb opened his spell book to one of its first pages.

“It is a very basic spell, I do not have any doubt that you will master it quickly.” He explained the distance limitations, and how seeing through the familiar’s eyes worked. “You can choose if you want a fey, celestial or fiend familiar, but you are probably going to want to go with fey.”

Essek transcribed it to his own book, which took him a couple of hours. It was quite simple indeed, but he was enjoying seeing Caleb in the role of the teacher for once. It was very amusing.

“He will always obey you. I once made Frumpkin drink an entire plate of milk to prove a point.” Frumpkin opened his eyes and stared at him accusingly. “Sorry buddy. Can you do a _blep_ for me?” The cat obeyed, and Essek had to school his features into something that didn’t betray how he was melting inside from the adorableness.

Then it was time for the ritual itself. Caleb took a brass brazier from the bag and set it in the center of the room, filling it with charcoal, and lighting it up.

“You can use mine today but you will need to buy one of these for yourself. You will need it when you want to change its form. I know that you mainly need a cat for the purring, but you never know when you could use, say, an octopus.” He cackled at Essek’s raised eyebrow. “Fine, maybe not an octopus, but how about a small bird? And it is also necessary if it dies. Our lifestyles are very different, so that is probably not going to happen to yours as often as it happens to Frumpkin, but it pays to be prepared.”

“You would be surprised.” Essek replied. “The Bright Queen’s court is full of envious individuals who might murder my familiar to upset me.”

Caleb looked horrified. “You know, I am happy that my life went in a different direction.” He gave Essek the necessary herbs and incense. “It is ready.” He snapped his fingers to make Frumpkin disappear, so he would not interfere with the ritual.

Essek fed the ingredients to the brazier and began the incantation. His hips hurt after a whole day of work, but he paid them no mind; he would have a solution for that soon enough. It was more difficult to ignore the wizard’s stare digging a hole into his skull, following his movements to make sure they were correct. He wouldn’t have needed to; Essek performed the spell flawlessly, and something was solidifying in the thick smoke. One hour later, a cat jumped out.

“Oh, I think it is a girl!” Caleb cried out in delight.

She was smaller than Frumpkin, slender, with short gray hair with no markings, big ears, and green eyes. She walked towards Essek and rubbed against his legs, purring softly. Caleb made Frumpkin appear, and he went straight to the other familiar. They sniffed each other for a few moments, and he soon started grooming her with his tongue. Essek was a little too mesmerized to do anything but watch.

“Well, it seems like Frumpkin approves.” Caleb’s grin had not abated. “You did a great job. Why not trying to order her to do something?”

Essek shook himself out of the daze. “Em. Cat.” Two green eyes looked at him. “Jump to the desk.”

She obeyed.

“You can do it with your mind, you know.” Caleb tried to smother a giggle. “She needs a name.”

“Yes.” Essek composed himself. “Your name is… Sophonax.”

Sophonax made a “mrrp” sound. She seemed to approve. She walked to the edge of the desk and reached with his head in Essek’s direction.

“This means she wants to be petted,” Caleb explained.

Essek extended one hand, against which Sophonax bumped her head. She started purring loudly. He grew braver and took her in his arms, cradling her delicately against his chest. The cat didn’t protest.

“Fascinating,” he commented as he scratched her chin. “She is perfect.” He looked at Caleb. “Thank you, my friend, this is… thank you. Consider your debt greatly reduced.”

“That is good to know, _ja_, but I was not thinking about our debt.” He hesitated. Frumpkin jumped on his lap, obeying a silent command, and he petted him reflexively. “I merely wanted to make your life easier. Because I like you.”

“You’re laying it a bit too thick now.” Essek warned him, but a soft smile took the bite out of his words.

He sat back on the chair and set Sophonax on his lap. Soon the pain diminished, same as with Frumpkin, and he let out a relieved breath. _Can you bake biscuits?_ He requested, sending her a mental image of Frumpkin doing the same thing, and she complied. She was undeniably adorable. Caleb reached to her with his hand, and Sophonax smelled it cautiously. _He’s a friend_, Essek told her, and she nuzzled his hand.

Essek looked at Caleb. _He’s a friend, and maybe more than that_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! Thank you very much to everyone who left a comment, they mean a lot <3


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